IWF on the fly?

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Sorry for another IWF question but anyone have any input on how difficult/miserable it is to show up there on the fly without pre-registering?

Im not positive Ill be able to make it and of course can register a day or two prior but wondering about hotel availability (of course never any guarantees) and the like.

Im not really looking to attend any seminars but rather just spend a couple days at the show. Id likely be flying in and taking a cab as opposed to renting a car and was wondering what the downtown hotel availability/access is like.

I've always been registered well in advance, and always went on a company expense account, so maybe not the best advice. Many guys I knew on their own, get a hotel way out on the outskirts, but get one near a Marta train line. Looks like the Blue and Green lines take you right by the show. They also have extensive bus transport around the inner city hotels just for the show, but most of those hotels will be full. Besides, those are big money! I've never seen long lines at the walk in registration.

What Mark E. said.
@ airport when you come up the escalators into the main baggage claim area, turn left. Go nearly as far as you can, see Marta sign, turn left. Buy a pass for as many days as you are going to be there. 3day $16, 4 day $19, 7 day $25. I think they have vending machines to buy @ in addition to the window. Take the escalator to the upper level, board train. For the show, change trains @5 points, take blue line one stop west to Georgia Dome/GWCC/Phillips Arena, CNN. Station. You will come up on the south side of the Phillips arena. The World Congress Center is on the north side across the street.

The show is well organized and the lines if you haven't pre-registered have never been terribly long. They have a baggage check room if you have come direct from airport. Close in hotels are likely booked but there are lots of hotels north of down town & near Marta lines. Each Marta coach has a system map on the wall. Good system. Should you drive to Atlanta you can take one of those out-lying hotels, not even on a Marta line, take your car to a free parking garage next to a Marta station and zip to the show. See the on-line Marta site. Good system!

Same advice here, the inner hotels are likely full but the Marta lines run out a long way. Look @ the Marta maps on line. Marta runs to the airport. When you come up the escalator into the main bagage claim area, turn left, go about as far as you can and turn left again. There is a ticket window for Marta, buy a pass for however many days you will be there. $16 to $25, 3 to 7 days. Go up the stairs or escalator to the platform. Trains leave frequently, all headed north. There are quite a few hotels north of town that are near a Marta line. For anyone driving in for the day, there are parking garages for free @ some of the outlying Marta stations, see the online maps..... All the Marta coaches have system maps on the wall.
The only time I've seen registration lines is the first day, early, even then not terrible. The show is well organized.

Atlanta is an easy city to get around on Marta, this years Show could be busy given the last few $$ droughts we have all endured, in 08 I saw CEO's playing practicing putts in Booths, Good tennis shoes two days minimum spend the largest amount of time looking and shopping, revisit and set up purchase appointments after, it is worth seeing it all first !!
If you can take a good lead guy or two, the experience of this exposure to methods, tools and machinery always has been a benefit to the shop. registering there is no problem there are LOTS of windows it will be busy this year !

The following are some of my personal thoughts and observations. Your mileage may vary. :-)

Bringing a friend for your first show:
Leave the girlfriend or spouse home. Unless they are an active part of the business, they will probably be bored out of their mind. You need to be focused on the show for your time during the day. The first trip to IWF will keep your mind quite busy. Take the time in the evenings to a) plan the next day, and b) get some good rest before the next day. Treat your special one to something special when you get back. For the next IWF show (2016) or AWFS (2014), you can make a better decision about bringing someone with you.

Bringing a friend for your second show:
A few years ago, a number of our wives got together in Vegas (AWFS) during the day and had a great time at the pools, spa, walking around town, etc., during the day, then taking us guys with them for dinner and at least one show during the week. That did work out quite well. It wasn't my first show, so I wasn't as overwhelmed by all of the first-time information. They really enjoyed their vacation, time with each other (they live hundreds of miles apart), and we had some great memories to share. (My wife and I did fly to AWFS a few times several days early to spend some vacation time together. There are a number of great attractions in the area. One year the two of us rented an SUV and drove to the Grand Canyon for a couple of days.)

OK, back to the show...

Seminars:
There are a variety of seminars. Some are free. You may need to register for them. Some you will need to register and pay. A lot of the popular seminars can be sold out weeks or more before the show. You should be able to register and pay online before the show. Sometimes there are discounts for early registration. Consult the show's website to learn more. These can be a great way to learn about a particular topic. They are given by experts in the field. Some of the presenters are vendors. If so, their seminars/presentations should be about the subject topic and not be a sales pitch for their product/service. Most are quite good about this. The few that are not are usually not invited back for future shows. You may hear a 1-2 minute "commercial" and the very end of their presentation (that is usually allowed), but their entire presentation is not a sales pitch. There is a feedback form at the end of each seminar. Be sure to fill it out. (You can also contact the show staff if there is a glaring problem. Over the years I have only experienced a couple of sales pitch presentations. Most are quite professional.) Again, read the information on the website to learn more about the individual seminars.

Badge scanning:
Beware of every salesman at every booth who wants to scan your badge. Letting everyone do that will get you on a lot of mailing lists. You will be bombarded with both physical and electronic mail. And, probably a lot of stuff that you don't want. I have learned to look at their booth, ask questions, and then decide if I will let them scan my badge. I actually will turn my badge over (facing my shirt instead of outward) to keep sales guys from walking up and scanning me with their handheld device before I know what is going on. Not too many sales guys do that, but some are not so professional.

Badge scanning part 2:
If you really want to know where those extra emails are coming from after the show... Some folks I know have set up an extra email address just for the show. If you register with this email address, you will be able to determine which emails are a result of being added to a mailing list from the show. I personally don't do this. I've learned to be selective about who scans my badge. But, some folks like to do this.

Carrying everything home with you:
If you do want to carry home brochures, catalogs, fliers, handouts, etc., find a booth that is handing out cloth bags with the wide cloth handles. Your fingers will thank you. The thin plastic straps will cut into your hands and start to cut off the circulation as the bag gets heavier. Better yet, ask them to mail stuff to you. They will/should make a note to do so. Having said that, if you REALLY want some printed material, take it. Sometimes the vendors' sales support staff after the show gets overwhelmed. Information may get sent out weeks later, or even not sent at all. So, be selective.

Plan your walking:
Once you get the lay of the land, do some planning (possibly in the evening) with the show guide. Find the booths that you want to visit. Plot them on the show map. Remember there are multiple buildings and it may take you 30 minutes or more to walk from one booth to another. Plan a route the same way you would plan a delivery or pickup route for your business. Find the shortest paths. Otherwise, you will do a lot of extra walking, and may not even get to see what you came to see. And, remember those comfortable walking shoes!

Talk to other visitors:
Don't be afraid to strike up a conversation with fellow attendees while you are watching a demo at a booth. For example, some of the folks watching a CNC router have no idea what it is. But, some others may already have a CNC router, maybe even that brand, and are willing to share their experiences as a customer. It doesn't work with everyone, of course. But, you might learn something. It could be a CNC router, a moulding machine, sandpaper, finishing materials, hardware, whatever. Most of us are there for the same reason you are: we want to learn how to improve our operation.

Bring business cards:
No, you probably will not be looking for new customers at the show. Well, never say never. But, you might want to give your contact information to someone. Badge scanning will give them some basic information (what you provided when you registered), but you may want to give them more. Your choice, of course. Or, the person who you want to share with isn't a vendor with a badge scanner. So, have some extra cards with you each day. You never know when you might need them. It's more professional to hand them a card than to scratch your name and address on a napkin. :-)

Lunch:
If you decide you want fast food instead of the vendors inside the show, plan your lunch schedule to be in or near Building A. From the street level (concourse level) of Building A exit out the side doors at the far east end of the building, turn right, and you will see the side of the CNN building. Walk across the street (there is a cross-walk) and into the side door of CNN. (If you walk out the front doors of Building A, you will need to walk to your left to get to that side door. I try to stay in the air-conditioning if it is hot outside.) You will walk into the main lobby that has a food court with plenty of choices. It can get a bit crowded at lunch-time, but people normally share tables. I usually go a little earlier or later depending on my schedule to avoid the crowds. You can also take a tour of the CNN Studios. (Tours only available during the day and cost about $15. www.cnn.com/tour/index.html There is also a VIP tour for $35. They recommend reservations 24 hours ahead of time, but do take walk-ins as available. I thought the $15 tour was interesting.)

Driving, hotels, and MARTA:
I have driven several times to IWF. My drive is about 6 hours one way, so I don't fly. I usually stay in a hotel further out, drive to a MARTA station with free parking (check, I don't think they are all free), then take the train to the Georgia Dome/GWCC/Phillips Arena, CNN. Station stop mentioned by someone else. It is a one block walk to the main entrance of the show (GWCC buildings).

Parking at the show:
I did drive in once on the last day (Saturday) and found paid parking in a lot north (behind) the buildings. I only did this because I had to take home some booth materials (was part of a booth that year) that required multiple trips to my van, and I was headed in the opposite direction of my hotel for the trip home. Most of the parking lots around the buildings were reserved for other events later in the day and were closed to IWF visitors. Really, really annoying! I wasted a lot of time trying to find a lot for IWF parking. MARTA works really well.

Weather:
They don't call it "Hotlanta" for nothing. :-) August is typically hot and humid. Usually it is quite warm (average high: 88F). Sometimes it rains. Sometimes you wish it would rain just to cool things down. Be careful. Stay hydrated. Use common sense. You will be fine.

Badge Scanning Part 3:
The badges are color coded, depending upon the size of your business and your position in the business - you supply this info when you register. 10m a year and owner vs 100k a year and machine operator - makes for widely different responses from booth workers. Early on, they they learn to look directly at the badges as they welcome you into the booth, shaking hands; sizing you up is much easier, and you may well feel "sized."

So think about this as you register and supply company information. I found it better to be 'small and insignificant', even when I was spending $150,000 a year on equipment, or else these guys would not leave me alone and let me decide who to talk to.

You are sorta right about the badge color coding, but it has nothing to do with the individual's position and company size. The color coding indicates the TYPE of business, not the individual's position within the business.

For instance, Cabinets may be Red, Architectural Woodworking may be Blue, Education may be Green, Suppliers may be Purple etc.

And you are right, exhibitors do look for certain color codes on badges, as our product line is best sold to certain TYPES of businesses.

Going incognito or supplying inaccurate information will get you on more wrong follow up lists than the right ones that you really want to contact you. Unless you enjoy throwing out a bunch of inappropriate snail mailed brochures and catalogs or getting a bunch of e-mail that you have absolutely no interest in, be as accurate as you can when registering. It just makes your job easier when the follow ups begin after the show.

The system may have changed in the last few shows, but shows in the 80's and 90's were definitely color coded, by company size - either employee count or sales volume. There also was an obvious visibility to the badge holder's decision making status within the company. I went to shows when I worked at either end of the size spectrum and the selective badging was obvious.

Working a show like that would be my personal definition of hell, so I can understand the no eye-contact, badge focus that occurs as a result of the categorization. By the last day, there is a definite burned-out note in the air.

But it remains the greatest place to see large equipment under power and find all sorts of solutions to our efforts. I often discovered things I did not know existed, and ending up using them in our processes to good advantage, despite the preponderance of plaid pants.

The show, as mentioned above, also had an inspiring factor that fired me up for a good several months after. That is why it is good to take employees - fires them up and gets them thinking.

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